


It Goes Unspoken

by somefanficthoughts



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Character Death, Character Study, F/F, Homophobia, M/M, Mental Instability, Post-Canon, i never really know what to tag so i guess that's it, i'm gonna tag homophobia just in case but it's only implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25259443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somefanficthoughts/pseuds/somefanficthoughts
Summary: Her father tells her she will be Fire Lord.It’s all she has left now.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), it never really happens but it's essential to the emotional heart of the story
Comments: 15
Kudos: 187





	It Goes Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Stories Untold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3587019) by [avulle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avulle/pseuds/avulle). 



It goes unspoken.

Azula knows how to tear Zuko apart. Knows how to destroy him. In both body and soul.

But she never speaks of this.

In some way, she loves him. In some part of her twisted heart, she knows she loves him.

So she tries to fix him. She pushes Mai into his arms, begging Agni that it will work. That he will be spared this one pain, that he will somehow love her.

He doesn’t.

In one dark moment, she considers getting Ty Lee to seduce him. But Azula doesn’t love Zuko that much. She will not give him Ty Lee.

She should want to tell her father. She should want to watch Zuko’s hopes of becoming fire lord burn before his eyes. But she keeps quiet.

She doesn’t know whether she does it for him or herself.

It doesn’t matter. Zuko burns anyway.

* * *

Some part of Azula hates herself for forcing Ty Lee into this war.

Another part of Azula thrives in the power she has over her. In the power she has over everyone.

* * *

They hunt the avatar together.

Azula, Ty Lee and Mai.

They are a unit but never equals.

Azula always keeps a barrier up, refusing to let them in.

Azula doesn’t fear. But she dreads them finding the one failure she has. The one broken cog in her otherwise perfect machine.

She doesn’t let Mai past the barrier.

Ty Lee comes close, but if Azula is good at one thing, it’s pushing people away.

* * *

She takes Ba Sing Se.

Barely more than a child and she has achieved what her Uncle was incapable of. What every past Fire Lord has been incapable of.

Azula knows her power. She sees it in the blue hue of her flames. She sees it in Zuko’s failure. She sees it in the respect her father bestows her.

But now she knows her true capability. Azula will be greater than any other Fire Lord.

Sozin, Azulon, Ozai.

They are nothing compared to what she will be, to what she is. She is the conqueror of Ba Sing Se. Slayer of the avatar. Champion of the Fire Nation.

So, she allows Zuko to return home. He is nothing compared to her. Her father couldn’t possibly consider Zuko after her victory.

And maybe she lets him come home because she is tired of being alone.

* * *

They go to the party and Azula is by herself.

Zuko and Mai are in the corner, hating the world together. Ignoring the truth between them for the comfort of simple lies.

They would be a cute couple; if they could love each other.

Ty Lee has no problem being loved. The world loves Ty Lee like it hates Azula.

But she doesn’t care. She’s going to be Fire Lord. Why would she need love?

But seeing Ty Lee surrounded by boys, fawning for attention, fills Azula’s stomach with fire and her mouth with poison.

She knows how to destroy Ty Lee. Knows how to exploit her weakness.

And yet Ty Lee stays anyway. And she calls Azula beautiful and perfect. And she looks at Azula like someone worthy of love.

And for one weak second, Azula is tempted to tell her. To expose her one true weakness. Is tempted to throw away her ambition for the shine of Ty Lee’s eyes.

The second passes and Azula turns away.

* * *

She finds Zuko standing in the ruins of their childhood. That summer home that seems to represent everything Ursa took with her when she left.

“Do you ever get tired of the act? Do you ever wish you could just be happy.” He asks her.

She doesn’t respond.

Later, Zuko and Mai are back together. He knows his duty and so does she.

When Ty Lee finds her standing on the beach and stares into her eyes a little too deeply. Stands a little too close. Says words a little too close to a confession, Azula pretends to ignore her.

Ty Lee may be free to love but Azula is not.

* * *

On the day of the Black Sun, Zuko leaves, and she breaks a little.

Only a little. Not enough for Father to notice. All he sees when he looks at her is strength. A weapon. A legacy.

He’s gone again and this time he will not return. She prays that he has the sense to stay away. To escape this never-ending war and find peace in some backwater part of the Earth kingdom. Prays he will find that happiness he so desperately desires.

Azula is a princess of the Fire Nation. She could have anything she wants, yet not the loyalty of her family.

* * *

She sees the look Zuko gives the Water Tribe boy.

He’s found what he was looking for. What Mai could never give him.

He should have stayed out of the war. He’s forced her to kill him.

* * *

Mai betrays her.

It stings but she will survive. She will incinerate Mai where she stands. Mai will only be another number in a list of betrayals. She should know better by now.

She should have learnt not to trust.

And then Ty Lee chi blocks her. And the world crumbles.

She can’t breathe. She can’t think. She can’t imagine living through the next second much less the rest of her life.

“I’m sorry.” Ty Lee says, tears filling her grey eyes. Azula hates that colour now, that colour she used to so dreadfully love. Grey is no longer the storms ending the drought. No longer a sign that she is safe, that she is home.

Ty Lee walks over to her paralysed body, crouching down to cup her cheek. “I could have loved you Azula. If you’d have let me.” And then she turns her back and walks away.

She walks away, just like everyone else. The one person who was meant to stay.

Azula screams. She roars fire. She wants to burn down the world, herself along with it.

* * *

Her father tells her she will be Fire Lord.

It’s all she has left now.

* * *

Her mother haunts her.

Tells her lies. Pretends she loved her. Ursa only loved Zuko.

Ursa died for Zuko. She wouldn’t even look Azula in the eye.

And yet all she wants is her love.

Desperately wants to be a child again and crawl into her Mother’s lap. Wants to be told she is loved. Wants to be able to be loved.

But who could love Azula? Not even Ty Lee.

* * *

Zuko comes to fight her and she shatters.

He should have left. He should have stayed away.

Her mother is dead. Mai had betrayed her. Ty Lee... Ty Lee left her. And now she will have Zuko’s blood on her hands.

She is desperate and she is cold. Despite the heat of her blue flame she never feels warm.

For the first time in her life, she is imperfect, and she pays the price.

She is defeated by the Water Tribe girl. And now Azula truly has nothing left.

* * *

Zuko locks her up.

He tells her it’s for her own good. For her crimes. To help fix her.

She can’t be fixed. She’s always been broken.

* * *

The real Zuko sees her years later, she’s seen him every day since the Agni Kai though.

He tells her he changed the law, that he’s married the Water Tribe peasant from Boiling Rock.

He never did know his duty. But he is still the Fire Lord. If it were her, she would have been banished.

Everyone always did like Zuko more than Azula.

* * *

He begins to visit her more frequently, now that her hallucinations have lessened and according to her doctors her mind in healing.

He asks her whether she ever loved him.

Zuko took everything from her. Everything promised to him he threw away and she earnt. And then he took it back and left her with nothing.

She spits in his face.

* * *

Azula is now allowed to walk around the palace unrestrained. It’s been years and she is a woman grown. She’s never allowed to leave.

The world at war hated her and the world at peace hates her even more.

She could leave if she wanted to. But she never does, where would she even go?

* * *

One day she sees a little girl with long dark hair and wide grey eyes running through the palace. She hasn’t seen a child for nearly a decade.

Zuko may say he forgives her but he doesn’t trust her with his children.

She calls out to the child. Interested to talk to the one person in this palace that doesn’t know her past. That doesn’t see her for the monster she is.

The toddler babbles some gibberish and Azula nods along, not knowing how to respond. She grabs her hand and drags her along.

“We’re gonna go find Mum and Mama.” The child says, not really to Azula.

She knows the laws have changed. That Zuko and Sokka have been together for years. Seeing the product of such a marriage is different from hearing about it though.

It makes a part of her heartache, remembering a love she sacrificed for power, for her father. A sacrifice that meant nothing.

The little girl squeals and runs towards her parents. Azula looks up, curious to see if she recognises them. She wishes she didn’t.

Ty Lee and Mai stand there. Shock on their faces. Mai quickly ushers the girl behind her.

For the first time in four years, Azula is put back into chains

* * *

When she and Zuko are old and grey. When Sokka and the Avatar are dead. Zuko lets her leave.

She doesn’t know where to go. She doesn’t know what to do.

At first, she travels the Fire Nation. Sees what has become of the people that were promised to her. The nation that was promised to her.

The world has changed and grown without her. She no longer recognises it. It makes her feel dangerously close to snapping.

She finally settles on living in one of the Southern Water Tribes, where the world is much similar to the world of 60 years ago than it is now.

She doesn’t go by Azula, she is now Kallik. It may be a little obvious to name herself after lightning but she doesn’t care, no-one ever says anything.

Azula is old and there is nothing to do. But she cannot sit idle. She has spent the last six decades of her life being idle. So they give her a job.

Azula looks after the children. It fills her with a warmth she hasn’t felt in so long. Whether it’s the children or the fact that for once there are people that trust her enough to be with their most precious.

She doesn’t know.

* * *

One day a little girl called Korra is born. She is the first the Azula delivers. She is Azula’s favourite.

She helps raise Korra. Senna and Tonraq ask her if Korra can call her Gran-gran and Azula cries.

Azula hasn’t bent since she moved to the Southern Water Tribe, but sometimes in quiet moments alone with Korra she will. Lighting a blue flame on the tip of her finger.

It delights Korra. It’s the first time she’s used her bending to cause happiness rather than pain.

* * *

One day when Korra is only four, she produces a small flame.

Azula is the only one that sees. She may not have a child. But Korra is her legacy.

* * *

Only a few days later Korra bends fire in front of her parents.

They don’t know how their Water Tribe daughter can bend fire. They assume Senna’s unknown father must have had Fire Nation heritage.

Azula prays to Agni for the first time in decades.

She begs him for that to be the truth. Begs him to spare Korra from the burden of perfection that was forced upon her, that broke her.

Agni does not answer her prayers.

* * *

Azula tells Tonraq and Senna that she can bend fire. She does not tell them the whole truth, however.

She will not have Korra taken away from her.

She says she left the Fire Nation during the war. Tells them she lived in the Earth Kingdom for years. Tells them she moved to the Southern Water Tribe to see the last part of the world before she dies. Says she was worried that some in the Water Tribe will not have forgiven the Fire Nation for the war.

They believe her.

She becomes Korra’s sifu. She will teach her the beauty of fire. Not the destruction she learnt.

* * *

Korra is five and has nearly mastered Fire bending.

She is nearly as good as Azula. She will be better than Azula ever was.

It makes her proud.

* * *

Azula is dying.

She is lying on furs in the Southern Water Tribe and dying from old age.

She has felt happiness in this life. They have tried to take Korra before but Azula was there to protect her. Her only regret is not being able to protect Korra once she dies.

Azula has always been a prodigy. She can feel the flame within her lessening. She knows she has but minutes left.

She takes Korra’s hand, who is next to her crying. She hasn’t experienced death like Azula, and Azula is eternally grateful. Though she knows due to the flame and ocean and earth her hand controls, it will not last.

She brings Korra close and whispers to her, “My real name is Azula. Do not forget me.” And the light begins to fade.

As Azula feels her inner flame extinguish Korra tells her she loves her.

And everything is right. Because Azula the monster, Azula the tyrant, Azula the murderer, Azula the disgraced Fire Nation princess, is dying loved.

**Author's Note:**

> I really enjoyed writing this :)
> 
> Feed back is welcome.


End file.
